New Scottish Digital Publishing Company Announced

October 12, 2011

City of Literature are very excited to hear that Edinburgh-based novelist and literary agent, Allan Guthrie, has joined forces with serial entrepreneur and social media expert, Kyle MacRae, to create a new digital-only publishing company, Blasted Heath. The Scottish company will launch on November 1st with five titles and will publish around 30 books per year, available in various ebook formats.

And if you just can't wait until then to find out what's on offer, then fear not! It has just been announced that some of the opening line-up of Blasted Heath titles will include three crime novels by critically acclaimed writers, Ray Banks, Douglas Lindsay and Anthony Neil Smith. There will also be two debut novels: a cyberthriller by Gary Carson and a novel for film lovers by movie critic Brian Pendreigh.

Co-founder Allan Guthrie's has seen the possibilities that digital publishing offers after his self-published digital edition of a novella, Bye Bye Baby, outsold his entire print backlist in only four months, becoming an Amazon top ten bestseller.

Guthrie says: "There's a fierce amount of talent on display and there's a lot more to come. I firmly believe there's never been a more exciting time to be a reader, a writer or a publisher. With the publishing industry becoming increasingly risk-averse, the rapid expansion of the ebook market is a wonderful opportunity for a creative and innovative publisher to break new ground. Blasted Heath combines my publishing experience with Kyle's marketing background to create a new model of digital publisher that connects readers with writers and gets books in front of readers in exciting new ways."

Alongside digital downloads, Blasted Heath is launching with the Blasted Boxset, offering readers the chance to own the five launch novels on a branded USB stick, all lovingly presented in a special presentation pack.

For more information, or to find out more, take a look at the brand new website http://blastedheath.com from November 1st.